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Live: Three Israeli captives released in Gaza

Live
Live: Three Israeli captives released in Gaza
183 Palestinian detainees to be released from Israeli prisons later today
Key Points
Kamal Adwan Hospital director held in notorious Israeli military detention centre
WHO chief: Attacks on Gaza's health sector make hospitals a 'battleground'
Gaza death toll rises to 45,541

Live Updates

5 days ago

Three Israeli captives - Keith Siegel, Ofer Kalderon and Yarden Bibas -  have been released in two separate locations in Gaza City and Khan Younis.

The captives were taken away in Red Cross cars, and are now undergoing medical checks.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the Israeli government  "is committed to returning all abducted and missing persons".

There are 183 Palestinian detainees set to be released from Israeli prisons today in the fourth captive-prisoner exchange under the ceasefire deal.

4 days ago

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are some of the latest updates:

  • Hamas released the next three Israeli captives, Ofer Kalderon, Yarden Bibas and Keith Siegel, in Khan Younis and Gaza City.

  • Israel is set to release 183 Palestinian detainees from Israeli prisons later today in the fourth hostage-prisoner exchange under the ceasefire agreement.

  • Fifty sick and wounded Palestinians are scheduled to cross the Rafah border for treatment outside Gaza in the first medical evacuation since Israel seized the crossing almost nine months ago.

  • WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said "12,000 to 14,000" Palestinians in Gaza require "urgent specialised care" that they can only receive outside the strip.

  • Israeli forces stormed Tulkarm camp in the occupied West Bank as part of its days-long raid. Soldiers raided homes, forcing families out at gunpoint, Wafa news agency is reporting. The agency said the raids were tantamount to "forced displacement".

1 month ago

Good evening Middle East Eye readers,

Our live coverage from Gaza will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are some of the day's key developments:

  • Israeli forces have killed at least 45,541 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023

  • The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Hussam Abu Safiya, is being held at Israel's notorious Sde Teiman prison, where abuse - including torture, murder and rape - is rife, recently released detainees have said

  • Hundreds of tents in displacement camps across the Gaza Strip were flooded last night and this morning due to heavy rains, Wafa news agency reported

  • Medical sources reported that the twin of the child who died yesterday also succumbed to the cold on Monday morning, bringing the total number of infant deaths due to freezing temperatures to six in a week, Wafa news agency reported

  • Five Palestinian detainees from Gaza have died inside Israeli jails over the past 24 hours

  • The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned that the "obliteration" of Gaza’s healthcare system puts civilians at "unacceptably grave risk"

  • Israel's ambassador to the UN issued on Monday what he called a final warning to Yemen's Houthi militants to halt their missile attacks on Israel, saying they otherwise risked the same "miserable fate" as Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria's Bashar al-Assad if they persisted

1 month ago

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon issued on Monday what he called a final warning to Yemen's Houthi militants to halt their missile attacks on Israel, saying they otherwise risked the same "miserable fate" as Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria's Bashar al-Assad if they persisted.

"To the Houthis, perhaps you have not been paying attention to what has happened to the Middle East over the past year. Well, allow me to remind you what has happened to Hamas, to Hezbollah, to Assad, to all those who have attempted to destroy us. Let this be your final warning. This is not a threat. It is a promise. You will share the same miserable fate," Danon told the UN Security Council.

He also warned Tehran that Israel has the ability to strike any target in the Middle East, including in Iran, adding that Israel would not tolerate attacks by Iranian proxies.

The Houthis have repeatedly fired drones and missiles towards Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli fire in Gaza.

1 month ago

Israeli settlers abducted and assaulted a Palestinian man from the town of Ash Shuyukh, east of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, on Monday night, Wafa news agency is reporting.

According to reports, a group of settlers from the "Asfar" settlement raided a quarry in the al-Zafaran area, where they detained the workers and searched their cell phones before abducting and beating a Palestinian man and then abandoning him near a military checkpoint.

He was later transported by ambulance to the Hebron Government Hospital for treatment.

1 month ago

The Israeli aviation sector has suffered losses amounting to 105 million shekels ($28.8m ) in the first nine months of 2024, as a result of the continued assault on the Gaza Strip, a statement by the Israeli Airports Authority on Monday said.

The loss is partly due to continued flight cancellations by several western airlines to and from Tel Aviv.

Data showed that approximately 13.8 million passengers passed through Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport in 2024, a 34 percent decline compared to 2023.

1 month ago

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas extended on Monday his condolences to the family of former US President Jimmy Carter following his death on Sunday.

In his telegram to the family of the late President Jimmy Carter, President Abbas stated, "On this solemn day, we mourn the passing of an extraordinary statesman and global peacemaker, His Excellency President Jimmy Carter, the thirty-ninth President of the United States of America. A man of courage, moral integrity, humanity, and diplomacy, President Carter was an inspiration to generations and a beacon of hope for all who believed in the power of justice and compassion.”

“As the first American president to recognize the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, he worked tirelessly to advocate for a just and lasting solution in the Middle East”, he added.

1 month ago

Ahmad Tibi, a Palestinian member of the Knesset, asked Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz to visit Dr Hossam Abu Safiya, director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, reportedly detained in the Sde Teiman detention centre. 

He also called for Dr Abu Safiya’s release. 

"The notorious reputation of this facility, which endangers lives, is now known worldwide. We must not abandon Dr Abu Safiya, the man who stayed with his patients until the very last moment. Israel is holding him, and it is responsible for his life and health. It will also bear responsibility if anything happens to him while he is under its custody. I join the international call for his immediate release," Tibi wrote.

1 month ago

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned that the "obliteration" of Gaza’s healthcare system puts civilians at "unacceptably grave risk".

It also reiterated its call for the respect and protection of medical facilities so civilians can access desperately needed services. 

1 month ago

“We, the family of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, urgently appeal to the international community to act immediately for his release. Detained by Israeli occupation forces while performing his humanitarian duty, he now suffers severe mistreatment in Sde Teiman detention centre, including humiliation, exposure to freezing cold and denial of medical care,” reads a statement from Abu Safiya's family, shared on his Instagram page. 

Abu Safiya, the director of Gaza’s last functioning hospital, is being held at Israel’s notorious Sde Teiman prison, where abuse - including torture, murder and rape - is rife, recently released detainees have said.

The hospital director has not been seen in public since Friday, when Israeli forces stormed the bombed-out Kamal Adwan Hospital, following a nearly three-month blockade of northern Gaza. 

The family's statement says that Abu Safiya and his entire family hold Kazakhstani citizenship and “calls on the Kazakhstani government, international organizations like WHO and MedGlobal, and all foreign governments to intervene and secure his release before it is too late”.

1 month ago
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Children take shelter in a tent camp in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on 29 December 2024, amid freezing temperatures (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)

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Palestinian man sweeps water out of his tent after heavy rains in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza (Reuters/Ramadan Abed)

KhanYounis-Gaza-WinterColdFreezing-AFP-Bashar Taleb
Displaced Palestinians gather around a fire in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, seeking warmth (AFP/Bashar Taleb)

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A camp for displaced people in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, is flooded with rainwater (AFP/Eyad Baba)

1 month ago

Five Palestinian detainees from Gaza have died inside Israeli jails over the past 24 hours.

They were identified as Ashraf Abu Warda, Muhammad Rashid Akka, 44, Samir al-Kahlout, 52, Zuhair Al-Sharif, 58, and Muhammad Anwar Labad, 57.

The Palestine Prisoner's Society (PPS) and the Commission of Detainees ad Ex-Detainees Affairs said this brings the total death toll of Palestinians within Israeli detention since 7 October to 54, making this the bloodiest period for Palestinian prisoners since 1967.

Detainees in Israeli prisons have endured torture and abuse, including forced starvation, medical negligence, sexual abuse, and being left in squalid living conditions.

Over 10,300 Palestinians were being held in Israeli jails as of the beginning of December, according to PPS statistics. Among them are 90 women and 345 children.

Read more: Palestinians from Gaza die within day after abduction by Israeli army

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Thousands of Palestinians from Gaza have reportedly been held in Israeli custody since the war began in October 2023 (Reuters)

1 month ago

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be placed in a fortified underground hospital to protect him from potential rocket attacks after undergoing prostate surgery. 

Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli Premier undertook surgery to remove his prostate at the Hadassah Medical Centre in Jerusalem.

Israeli media reported that Justice Minister Yariv Levin would temporarily serve as acting prime minister during the procedure. Defence Minister Israel Katz was authorised to convene the security cabinet if needed.

Netanyahu has gone to great lengths to demonstrate to the Israeli public that he is healthy enough to lead Israel. But over the last few years, the 75-year-old premier has developed health complications. Last year, doctors fitted him with a pacemaker after he suffered a “transient heart block".

His surgery coincides with an ongoing trial against him where an Israeli court charged him with several counts of fraud. 

Read More: Netanyahu to be placed in underground hospital after surgery amid fears of rocket attacks

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Netanyahu has gone to great lengths to demonstrate to his rivals and the Israeli public that he is healthy enough to lead Israel (AFP)

1 month ago

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned that Gaza's health sector is under increasing threat amid ongoing Israeli attacks and raids on hospitals. 

Ghebreyesus described hospitals in the enclave as "battlegrounds" in a post on X, formerly Twitter, noting that the Israeli incursion on the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza has rendered it out of service. 

The hospital was stormed by Israeli troops on Friday, following nearly three months of a suffocating blockade and constant air strikes on its departments and the area surrounding them.

All remaining medical staff, patients, and their relatives were taken out of the hospital at gunpoint, forced to strip down to their underwear and transferred to an unknown location. 

The Palestinian health ministry said dozens of doctors were taken to detention centres for interrogation, including the director of the hospital, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya.

Ghebreyesus called for the "immediate release" of Safiya, who was violently beaten by Israeli forces before his arrest, Munir al-Bursh, director-general of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, told Al Jazeera

Read more: Attacks on Gaza's health sector make hospitals a 'battleground', WHO chief warns

Palestinians mourn those killed in an Israeli strike at Khan Yunis' Nasser Hospital
Palestinians mourn those killed in an Israeli strike at Khan Yunis' Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza on 28 December 2024 (AFP/Bashar Taleb)

 
1 month ago

A Palestinian detainee from Gaza has died in an Israeli prison in the Negev desert.

The Palestine Prisoner's Society (PPS) and the Commission of Detainees ad Ex-Detainees Affairs announced on Monday the death of Mohammed Rashid Saeed al-Akka, 44. 

They said in a statement that the deaths of detainees was a part of Israel's war on Palestinians, describing it as a goal by Israel to carry out "more executions and assassinations".  

Detainees held in Israeli prisons since the war on Gaza began have described horrific conditions, including physical assault and the withholding of medical care. 

Over 10,300 Palestinians were being held in Israeli jails as of the beginning of December, according to PPS statistics. Among them are 90 women and 345 children.